Archive for March, 2012

Hey Everyone!

I apologize for my sporadic posting schedule as of late. Between working my regular midnight shift job and doing the nail tech apprenticeship (sometimes both on the same day!) I’ve had a hard time fitting in any swatching for my poor neglected blog. The apprenticeship is going well! I’ve been able to apply my current knowledge and I’m still learning new techniques daily with my coursework. Today I’ve got three polishes from the Summer 2011 Barielle Karma Collection to share with you all. I was given the opportunity to try out some of Barielle’s polishes and I ended up picking out Buddha-ful, Do Unto Others and Gotta Have Fate. I was also given their 60 Second Mani-Pedi scrub to try, and it’s AMAZING but I’ll be talking about that one in full detail on another day.

I used Seche Vite and Sally Hansen Nail Quencher as my base and top coat combo for today’s swatches.

Do Unto Others

Do Unto Others is a bright turquoise blue creme. This one had a decent formula that was opaque in 2 coats, though I had some issues with it leveling on its own. And it does stain your nails a little bit, so you might want to double up on your base coat with this polish.

Gotta Have Fate

Gotta Have Fate is a gorgeous coral jelly-creme hybrid that seems to change from orange to pink leaning depending on your skin tone. A lot of swatches that I’d previously seen of this polish are much more pink leaning, but on me Gotta Have Fate almost looks like an orange neon! Which is fine by me because I loooooove orange polish. This is 3 thin coats and it does dry semi-matte so you’ll need a top coat to make this one shine. ^_^

Buddha-ful

Buddha-ful is a sheer pinkish beige that’s filled with iridescent blue-green flakies! You definitely would be better off layering this one though. What you see above is 4 thicker coats of Buddha-ful by itself, and there’s STILL a ton of VNL!

I layered Buddha-ful over some other polishes here, nothing better than a flakie layering fest!

Final Thoughts:

Overall I’m happy with the polishes I chose from the Karma Collection. I think that if I use 2 layers of base coat the next time I wear Do Unto Others then I won’t have any staining issues. And Gotta Have Fate and Buddha-ful are fun polishes, I love how they look layered with one another!

Purchase Info:

You can purchase the Karma Collection polishes from Barielle’s website. They retail at $8.00 per .45 fl oz bottle of polish, but they have a constant “Buy One, Get One 50% Off” deal running on their site.

Barielle has also released about 393485.5 new shades so check those out too!

Hey Everyone!

Just got back from seeing The Hunger Games and overall I really enjoyed it! They made a few changes that didn’t thrill me (the mutts and PG-13 rating), but that’s to be expected with a book adaption. Anyway, why don’t you all head on over to Fashion Polish to check out the awesome konadicure that I did for Sam! You can view it by clicking on the photo above or by using this link right [HERE]!

Good Morning Again Tributes!

I’m back with Part 2 of my China Glaze Hunger Games Colors from the Capitol Collection Swatches. If you missed out yesterday, you can check out Part 1 right [HERE]. Let’s move right into the polishes, shall we?

I used Sally Hansen Nail Quencher and Seche Vite as my base coat/top coat combo for all the swatches shown today.

Mahogany Magic (District 7 – Lumber)

Mahogany Magic is a chocolate brown creme with yellow undertones. I ended up liking this one a lot more than I thought I would. I have a grand total of maybe three brown polishes, including this one, but the color is great! I used 2 coats here. The formula is a little thin but built up nicely and had good pigmentation.

Dress Me Up (District 8 – Textiles)

Dress Me Up was another surprise “DO WANT” polish for me. I do not reach for pinks usually, but this dusty rose hued creme is super pretty and feminine without being too grandmotherly. I used 2 coats for this one as well, the formula is awesome!

Harvest Moon (District 9 – Grain)

Harvest Moon (not to be confused with one of my favorite franchises ever) is a shimmering copper metallic foil. I love it! It reminds me of a brand new penny! I used 2 coats here.
Macro shot of Harvest Moon. This seems like a polish that would fit better in a Fall collection as opposed to Spring, but when have I ever really treated ANY polish as seasonal?

Foie Gras (District 10 – Livestock)

I think that the name for Foie Gras fits really well with this polish. The color is not quite brown and not quite purple, but somewhat of a mix between the two… If that makes sense to anyone other than me. Another easy as pie creme to apply, and once again I only needed 2 coats for opacity.

Agro (District 11 – Agriculture)

Agro! OMG this polish has my heart! I’m taking this one and Riveting and hugging them tight to my chest and never letting them go! Agro is an olive green metallic and we’re in love. I used 2 coats here, and it has a slight tendency to show some brush strokes since it’s a metallic but it’s hardly noticeable once the polish dries.
Macro shot of Agro for ya. Look at this thing of beauty. *le sigh*

Smoke and Ashes (District 12 – Mining)

Smoke and Ashes is another one I am loving! It has a black base that’s filled with blue and green glass flecks. Maybe it’s my eyes playing tricks on me but sometimes the base looks like a blackened navy blue instead of straight black. It reminds me so much of my beloved ChG Blk-Bila-Bong and Barielle’s Blackened Bleu, I feel like Smoke and Ashes is at least a cousin of the two. I’ll be adding it to my comparison list for a future post. The formula is great, I could have stopped at 1 coat! I ended up using 2 coats here for swatching purposes.
Macro shot for ya of Smoke and Ashes. Magnify that sucker, you won’t regret it.

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Final Thoughts:

Wow, I find myself liking each and every one of these! If I had to pick favorites from this batch it’d be Agro and Smoke and Ashes. The formulas for all of these were great, not a bad egg in the group! I know that not all of the colors in this collection are ~*~unique snowflakes~*~, but I’m a sucker for geekery and if there’s a polish based on my favorite books, movies or games you can sign me the hell up!

If you’ve snagged any of the Colors from the Capitol, which ones have you been liking the most. And my bigger question, for those that went to the midnight release… HOW WAS THE MOVIE?!

No spoilers please for those that haven’t read the book/seen the movie yet. ^_^

Purchase Info:

The China Glaze Hunger Games Collection polishes can be purchased from a variety of e-tailers: TransDesign, Victoria Nail Supply, Nailsupplies.us, Head2Toe Beauty, and 8ty8 Beauty. You can also find them at salons and beauty supply stores nationwide, including Sally Beauty and Ulta. Prices vary depending on the retailer with a range between $3-7.00 per .5 fl oz bottle of polish.

Good Morning Tributes!

I’m happy to be sharing part of my China Glaze Hunger Games Collection swatches with you today! I wish I didn’t have to work tonight so I could go to the midnight release, but I have to wait until I have time to go see it this weekend. I ultimately decided to split this into two posts (one today, one on Friday) because 35+ pictures would have been ENTIRELY too much for me to include in one post. That being said, this is still going to be a bit picture heavy. ^_^

Luxe and Lush (District 1 – Luxury)

Luxe and Lush is really interesting to me. It’s a flakie, but the pieces are irregular shards as opposed to your run of the mill flakies that you normally see. I love it! It has a suspension base like most clear glitter polishes, but it’s not so thick that it’s unmanageable. And after top coat there was hardly and grittiness which I know can be a problem with this type of polish.

From Left to Right:

Pointer: 2 coats of Luxe and Lush over 2 coats of Smoke and Ashes

Middle: 2 coats of Luxe and Lush over 2 coats of Dress Me Up

Ring: 2 coats of Luxe and Lush over 2 coats of Riveting

Pinky: 2 coats of Luxe and Lush by itself

Here’s a macro of Luxe and Lush. I really like how versatile this one is! You get such a different effect depending on what you use as your base layer of polish. ♥

Stone Cold (District 2 – Masonry)

Stone Cold was a surprise, it’s a matte finish! And holy cow is it a gorgeous one! I love the silver shimmer! It’s probably one of the easiest to deal with matte polishes that I own. If you’re careful and get enough polish on your brush Stone Cold is a 1-coat-wonder! I ended up using 2 coats this time because I had one or two bald spots on a few fingers. Like most mattes, it dries fast so work quickly!
Here’s a macro shot for you, when you leave it matte the silver shimmer really takes over. It’s gorgeous.
Do not adjust your monitors, this is STILL Stone Cold. But look how different it looks with top coat! Now it looks more black than grey, and still beautiful. I honestly don’t know which I l like best. O___O*
And here’s a macro shot for ya.

Riveting (District 3 – Technology)

Oh. Em. Eff. Gee. This my friends is Riveting. And if a name has ever fit a polish more aptly then I don’t own it yet. I love this color! It’s such a bright, shimmering, girl-on-fire color… *le sigh* I used 3 thin coats for this gold glass flecked beauty. It’s thin but it builds up wonderfully. For an orange polish lover like myself, it rarely gets better than this. ♥
And here’s a macro shot. I’ll give you all a few minutes to clean up the drool. Scroll on whenever you’re ready.

Hook and Line (District 4 – Fishing)

Hook and Line… Oh…. You…. I was ready to fully hate this one because of how frosty it looked in the bottle. But after I finished applying it I ended up kind of liking it? It’s definitely frosty, but it looks like a pewter brushed metal. And I’m finding that I don’t mind it in this instance. Especially since Hook and Line is for the Fishing District, it actually fits the concept they were going for quite well.

THAT BEING SAID. This was one of the most finicky polishes that I’ve ever had to deal with. What you see in my swatches is a combination of reallllly careful application (starting with the first two strokes on the outer left and right sides of my nail bed, and the 3rd stroke straight and fast down the center) and sheer luck. I used roughly 3 coats per nail, but it might have been 4 or 5 on some when I needed to ‘touch up’ some super brush stroke issues. And the formula is incredibly thin and sheer.

Electrify (District 5 – Power)

Electrify doesn’t really do much for me. It’s your standard clear base glitter with gold and red. It builds up pretty nicely on its own. This is 3 coats, thought there are still a few small bald spots. I might try layering this over some other polishes though the next time I wear it. ^_^
Macro shot, you can see the small bald spots here and there. And like most glitters, you’re gonna need the foil removal method for Electrify unless you want to bedazzle your fingers with residual glitter.

Fast Track (District 6 – Transportation)

Fast Track is pretty beige with gold shimmer. Again, not too original but still pretty. I want to do a comparison between this one and Irreplaceable by Essence, because that’s the first polish that comes to mind when I look at this one. I used 2 coats here.
Here’s a macro of Fast Track for you all. ^_^

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Final Thoughts:

The formulas ranged for this section of the Hunger Games Collection polishes. I think Hook and Line had the worst formula, hands down, even still it wasn’t the one I liked the least. If I had to pick my favorites, it’d definitely be Riveting, Luxe and Lush and Stone Cold. ^_^

Purchase Info:

The China Glaze Hunger Games Collection polishes can be purchased from a variety of e-tailers: TransDesign, Victoria Nail Supply, Nailsupplies.us, Head2Toe Beauty, and 8ty8 Beauty. You can also find them at salons and beauty supply stores nationwide, including Sally Beauty and Ulta. Prices vary depending on the retailer with a range between $3-7.00 per .5 fl oz bottle of polish.

Allo Everyone!

I hope everyone is having a great weekend so far! I’m pretty excited that after I’m done at the salon today I have several glorious days off in a row lined up. This hasn’t happened since I started my nail tech apprenticeship at the beginning of February! I plan on having a great night out with friends tonight and then a great day of vegging and recovery on Sunday. One of my favorite bakeries in town has a ton of Irish Goodies to offer today and I’m really hoping I can get my hands on some of the Brown Bread, Soda Bread, and Irish Whiskey Brack with Whiskey Butter (yummmmmmmmmmmmm)!

If anyone was following me on Twitter last night you may have glimpsed my immense pile of green polishes I pulled out of my Helmers when I was brainstorming for my holiday manicure. I really couldn’t decide on one single theme so I ended up painting each nail except for my middle finger on each hand differently! I’m pretty happy with the results. ^_^

NOTD: St. Patrick’s Day Skittle Manicure

Here’s how my left hand turned out. I ♥ it! Now I can’t even begin to tell you all the polishes I used for this manicure since I used something different for all but 2 out of 10 nails! And of course I put everything back into my Helmers before I wrote the names of the polishes down.
This is another shot of my left hand and my rarely shown thumb.

Off the top of my head I used the following products (starting with my thumb):

Damn, I remembered a lot more than I thought for this hand!
And here’s some snapshots of my right hand. Which I hardly ever show, I think this is the 2nd time ever I’ve shown it on the blog! My middle finger is exactly the same on this hand as on my left, except I goofed the placement of the stamp a little bit.

Let’s see how much I remember on this hand. Starting with my pinkie we’ve got:

Nubar Reclaim, Rescue Beauty Lounge Recycle with Cult Nails Toxic Seaweed layered over it, middle finger is the same as the polish combo on my left hand (Sally Hansen, A England, Mash Stamp, SinfulColors), Barielle’s Lilly of the Valley layered with a pretty new franken by Karine that I’ll be reviewing very soon.
And this was the best shot I could get of my thumb on this hand you guys. My right hand is not trained to pose properly like my left hand is. My thumb is a hodge podge of Essie’s Pretty Edgy, A England’s Dragon and A England’s Holy Grail with the Red Angel RA-116 stamp.
And one final pic of both of my hands. ♣

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And a round of applause to my mind for actually remembering the 389438.4 polishes I used for this look today, hah! I had a lot of fun creating it. ^_^

Morning Everyone!

I’ve got the newest addition to my Cult Nails family to share with you today, Toxic Seaweed! I’d been patiently awaiting the release of this gorgeous polish ever since Maria started posting glimpses of it on the Cult Nails Facebook page, and as soon as midnight struck on its release date I snatched up a bottle immediately!

I used the Cult Nails base coat/top coat combo (Get It On/Wicked Fast) for all swatches shown today.

Cult Nails Toxic Seaweed

Toxic Seaweed is a murky kelp green jelly that’s filled with all sorts of good stuff. There’s red/gold flakies, and tons of glitter that gives it that ‘glowing from within’ look. I know I’ve said it before, but I’m so in love with this polish! It has a thick suspension base but I still used 3 coats here, there’s just a hint of VNL but nothing too major.

Although next time I’ll layer it over a similar green polish in order to save product. Toxic Seaweed is made from similar ingredients that were in the late and great Unicorn Puke, so it’s a limited edition polish. Once it’s gone, there’s no comin’ back.
Here’s a macro shot for you all, you really need to blow this one up to see all the detail in Toxic Seaweed. So very pretty. *le swoon*

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Final Thoughts:

I don’t really have too much else to add to this section that I haven’t already said before. This polish rocks, I love the combination of flakies and glitter, and the deep green is to die for! It’s a little on the stinky side but it’s not gonna knock you out, just don’t put your face right up to the bottle and you’ll be fine.

Purchase Info:

Cult Nails polishes are B3-Free, vegan friendly and cruelty free. They’re also free of phthalate or camphor. Toxic Seaweed is part of the Let’s Get Nekkid! Collection and is the only limited edition polish in the bunch, so grab it while you still can folks! You can purchase them from the Cult Nails website, or OverallBeauty.com. Retail price is $10.00/ea per 0.5oz bottle of polish.

Hey Everyone!

I hope you all had a great weekend! I spent it being sick and losing my voice, yay! But I also got to see Electric Six perform here in town! They’ve been one of my favorite bands since 2002 and I’m so happy that I finally got the chance to see them live! It. Was. Awesome. The venue was small, which made it feel more intimate, and they played a LOT of my favorites and came back out for an encore! I snapped a few pics and posted them on my Instagram account (@nailsandnoms, hay hay new iPhone 4S!) so you all should check them out! ^_^

Today I’ve got 3 polishes from the SpaRitual Wilde Collection that was released for Fall 2011. These are my first SpaRitual polishes ever so I was pretty pumped to try these out, and this collection had SO many that I wanted to play with. I ended up choosing the following 3 because the colors were the most interesting for me.

Running With Wolves

Running With Wolves is a rich copper shimmer polish with a metallic finish. It’s gorgeous but I’m not sure that it’s doing any favors for my skin tone. I may have to set this one aside until summertime when I’m more tan. This is 2 coats.
Here’s a macro shot. You can see that there are some scant brush strokes visible here. And I want to warn you that you do have to baby this polish a bit or it’s quite brush stroke happy. The first time I tried to apply it I was in a rush and it looked horrible! What works for me is doing your first two strokes on the left and right sides of your nail bed, then coming straight down the center of the nail for the third and final stroke.

Howl

Howl is a vampy dark brown, almost black, polish that is filled with golden brown and pink shimmer. Oooooh how I love this one. In low light you’ll get just a hint of the glow from within of the shimmer, as seen in the above two pics. Click them for a better look at what I’m talking about.
Here’s a ‘imitation sunlight’ photo of Howl that was taken with camera flash. If you maximize this picture you can really get a good look at the hidden pink shimmer that’s in there. So very pretty! This is 2 coats, great formula on this one too.

Sacred Ground

Sacred Ground has been on my mind ever since I first saw swatches of it popping up last fall. I just putting off buying it for reasons unknown (read: short-term memory loss) until recently when I was given the opportunity to finally snag it. And MAN ALIVE this polish is gorgeous!! It’s grey, periwinkle, and golden all swirled together. AND there’s even little flecks of a brighter aqua blue mixed in here or there. It kinda reminds me of colorful granite. *le swoon*
Click. On. This. Macro. ♥

Sacred Ground had the thickest formula of the ones that I tried, but it still spread smoothly and effortlessly onto my nails. This is 2 coats.

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Final Thoughts:

Well if the rest of the SpaRitual line is this spot on then you can count me in as a new fan! Out of the three I tried here today, Sacred Ground and Howl had amazing formulas and all three polishes had great pigmentation. I do wish the formula for Running With Wolves was less finicky, but it’s a lovely color. And if you’re willing to put in a few extra minutes to be careful with application it’s really a great polish.

What’s also great is that this brand is DBP, Formaldehyde, and Toluene-free. PLUS it’s vegan! I also really enjoy the rubberized tops, it makes precise application much easier to achieve.

Purchase Info:

The Wilde Collection, along with other SpaRitual polishes can be purchased from Apothica.com. They retail at $10.00 for .5 fl oz bottles and $5.00 for their .17 fl oz mini bottles of polish. SpaRitual also has a tool on their site to help you find their polishes locally, you can use it right [HERE]. ^_^

* The product(s) in this post were sent to me for unbiased review consideration.

Morning Everyone!!

Oh. Em. Gee.

When Ji Baek contacted me and asked if I would like to help her debut the long-awaited Rescue Beauty Lounge Fan Collection I just about fell out of my seat! I was at the salon when I got the email and I got so worked up that I had to go outside because I was overheating. ಠ_ಠ You guys, this is a big day for me and I’m WAY pumped to be able to share this with you. I’ll also be including Ji’s press release in snippets throughout this post. She has a way with words that makes my heart sing. So hold onto your hats folks, this post is a doozy! ^_^

It has been a long haul in making The Fan Collection. Our fans submitted the first ideas almost 13 months ago. The nail-biting voting event ended February 15th, 2011. The path to creating our four winners’ dream colors was engrossing; it was a year full of nail polish connoisseurship, coupled with our mutual love for these colors. During this robotic back-and-forth dance of color submissions, rejections, numerous tweaking, corrections and one technical disaster, these creations are worthy of every droplet of my sweat and tears.

The hilarity of our loquacious email exchanges have been a novel-worthy read and their iron wills for not settling for less than their vision and not caving into my seductive, alternate baits turned me into their humble servant. Any wonder why they’re our fans? I must thank Danielle, Kay-Di Kat, and Nora for their generous time and keen participation, and I especially thank Neeta, for teaching me all about copper.

Aqua Lily

A few years ago, I was lucky enough to visit the Kuda Huraa Island of the Maldives. The turquoise water is a crystal-clear sea green and what really had me spellbound was that it reflected a shimmery-pink hue from the shedding scales of the colorful, vivid, and exotic tropical fish. This color is Kay-Di Kat’s homage to her beloved mom, Lily, an Aquarius who swims like an enchanting mermaid. I imagine Lily swimming in this paradise with its mesmerizing water in the Island of the Maldives.

Aqua Lily is an absolutely GORGEOUS turquoise polish with a fine fuchsia pink subtle shimmer. It’s hard to capture on photo but trust me when I say it’s there and much more prominent in person. The formula for Aqua Lily was medium thick and was an absolute dream to apply! All I needed was 2 easy coats that practically painted itself onto my nails. Honestly, it’s so pigmented that this one could have easily been a 1-coater if I’d been extra careful.
Here’s a macro shot for you so you can get a better look at the fine shimmer. This polish is such a beauty! Do I even need to say that you should be clicking on Every. Single. Picture in this post for the original sized shots? Didn’t think so.
Here’s Aqua Lily in the bottle, I do wish that the shimmer was as strong on the nail as it is in the bottle!

Holy COW, Ji is not kidding when she says this baby is pigmented. This might be the best jelly polish that I have seen in my entire life. This is 2 coats people! The pigmentation in IKB: 2012 is ridiculous, slap-you-in-the-face, strong! Remember when I said that Revlon’s Royal was my favorite blue jelly finish polish? JK, because this one just replaced it. ♥IKB: 2012 is such a stunning shade of blue. I cannot WAIT to pair this one with my Max Factor Fantasy Fire. I’ve been waiting for the perfect polish to layer that over and I think this might be it! The first coat is a little scary looking because it’s a thicker formula, but the 2nd coat evened everything out nicely. Did I mention that IKB: 2012 is self leveling too? *le swoon*IKB: 2012 in the bottle. I ended up wearing this one as my NOTD once I finished swatching this collection. I can’t stop staring at my nails.

Halcyon

Danielle’s dream color is a soft, sage green with a pink glimmer of brilliant reflective shine, just like when the morning dew tenderly kisses a succulent plant. The beauty of succulents keeps her calm and serene.

Halcyon really surprised me. At first glance I thought it just had pink shimmer in it like Aqua Lily, but upon closer examination I realized that the shimmer was duo-chromatic! It goes from a delicate dusty pink shimmer to a rusty golden orange. I’m in love. This polish reminds me of spring so much! Maybe if I wear it each day then all our snow will melt. A girl can dream.
You can really see the color transition perfectly in this macro shot of Halcyon. It had a thinner formula than IKB: 2012 and Aqua Lily, but it was still easy to control and I hardly needed to do any clean-up. This is 2 coats.
And here’s Halcyon in the bottle. I can totally see myself sporting this polish A LOT. Methinks I may need a backup for this one.

Cuprum

The metamorphic moment when the presence of ammonia meets copper (II) transforms into a radiant blue. Cuprum is Latin for copper, and the dual nature of this element is what Neeta wanted to capture in a bottle.

Cuprum was another one that surprised me. I didn’t expect to see a metallic in the collection, and the sparse copper shimmer is so neat! It’s a little hard to see in the above pictures at their current size, but you can get a better glimpse of the shimmer when you click the photos.
And here’s a macro of Cuprum, you can really see the shimmer here. I thought I would need 3 coats for this once since it has the thinnest formula, but I ended up being just fine with 2 coats. Since Cuprum is a metallic it can be just a tad brush stroke-y (I may have made that word up…). You can avoid that by painting your 1st and 2nd stroke down the left and right sides of your nail bed, and then finish up with your final brush stroke dead down the center of each nail.
And last but certainly not least, a bottle shot of Cuprum. These polishes were such a delight to photograph. ^_^

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Final Thoughts:

I’m so excited to finally see this collection in person! I remember voting for my favorites during the contest last year and trying to imagine how each of the finalist’s selections would look in polish form based on their descriptions on Ji’s blog. When I opened my package and saw that all 4 winning polishes were blues and greens I think my eyes damn near popped out of my head! Each polish had near, if not perfect application and pigmentation. I’m hard pressed to name a favorite because I love them all!

If you’re a fan of blues, greens, shimmers and metallic polishes there is something for nearly everyone in this collection. Which ones are your favorites?

And I want to give Ji Baek a HUGE E-Hug for letting me be a part of this experience. ^_^

Purchase Info:

The Rescue Beauty Lounge Fan Collection will be available exclusively at www.rescuebeauty.com at the end of April 2012. From there you can also join the RBL VIP email list to be notified of pre-sale dates. The polishes retail at $20 per 0.4 fl oz bottle of polish. They contain no harmful Toluene, Formaldehyde, DBP, or Formaldehyde Resin and they do not test on animals.

* The product(s) in this post were sent to me for unbiased review consideration.

Hey Everyone!

Well folks, I’ve FINALLY got A England The Legend Collection swatches to share with you today! Adina has done it again, telling a wonderful story with her polishes. This time she takes her inspiration from the story of St. George and the Dragon.

I apologize for these being so late but you know how that goes. Real life getting in the way of my fun. Plus I really wanted to get some pictures of these beauties in natural sunlight. Silly me, I forgot that I lived in the tundra and that the sun doesn’t plan on showing its face again until May. So I had to settle for “fake sun”, aka camera flash, for my swatches but they still show just how utterly beautiful all 7 of these polishes truly are.

You’re definitely going to need to enlarge all of these pictures, especially the “sunlight” photos in order to see each polish it its full glory! Not only are the majority of The Legend Collection polishes scattered holographics, but a few of them are ALSO multichromatic. Be still my fricken’ heart!

I used A England The Knight base coat and The Shield top coat for my swatches today.

St. George

We’ll start with St. George, an absolutely STUNNING deep teal green that glows from within with scattered holographic green and teal blue shimmer. This was the first of The Legend’s that I tried and I was instantly in love. The pigmentation is so rich that I could have easily stopped at 1 coat. I used 2 for swatching purposes. I got so many compliments while wearing this color, it’s just fabulous. Even in fluorescent lighting at my workplace the polish was still glowing from within.
Here’s St. George in low/indoor lighting. A little less holographic but still absolutely gorgeous.
And a macro shot, just look the depth of color here! It reminds me of a gemstone. ♥

Princess Sabra (Tristam Eyes)

Adina describes Princess Sabra as a “golden olive bronzite”and I’d have to say that the description is fairly accurate. While is stays mostly in the bronze category, the holographic shimmer ranges from gold, to silver, to a very slight green hue. Its alter name, Tristam Eyes, is a tribute to Adina’s handsome furry companion of the same name. His eyes are the same elusive shade of bronze liquid metal.

My cats send their love! >^_^<

Here’s a quick picture of Tristam, courtesy of Adina’s twitter. You can see another gorgeous picture of Adina and Tristam on A England’s Facebook Page.
Here’s a shot of Princess Sabra without camera flash. I don’t have another color like this one in my collection. It’s a little sheer but built up nicely after 3 thin coats.
And finally a macro shot of Princess Sabra.

Dragon

Dragon. This color is… WOW. It leaves me breathless, speechless, and in love. If I had to imagine any polish perfectly embodying the scales of a dragon, this would be it. I feel like Dragon has set a standard that any other green polish must abide by, and it is now my favorite green polish. EVER. The polish is a beautiful mossy green, and when the gold pops through I am in heaven. I used 2 coats here.

If any of you have read GRRM’s A Song of Ice and Fire Series you’ll know what I mean when I say this polish reminds me of the mother of dragons: Daenerys and her ‘children’, Viserion, Rhaegal and Drogon.
Once again, I’ve never seen anything quite like this polish. Even in low light it’s still a gorgeous scale green shade.
Macro shot of Dragon. I’m sorry it’s so blurry! I didn’t realize it until I was already editing my photos.

Princess Tears

Princess Tears is the lighter of the two main holographic and multichromatic holo-chromatic (see what I did there?) polishes in this collection. It’s a delicate amethyst shade with a hint of a pale grey in certain lighting. In the latter picture above you can just see the grey peaking around the edges of the lilac. I ended up using 3 coats with this one, but I probably would have been fine with just 2 coats.
Here’s a shot of Princess Tears with camera flash. That’s when you pick up on the green that is subtly spread throughout the polish.
Your macro shot here. ^_^

Bridal Veil

Bridal Veil is one of the blackest black polishes that I own, and it’s filled with holographic glitter that gives it an almost celestial look. I used 2 coats here. This one NEEDS to been seen in person to fully appreciate it. Bridal Veil in low light. The scatter takes a back seat but you’re still left with a wonderfully glossy and fast drying black. If you’re careful I’m sure you could make this work with 1 coat!
Macro shot of Bridal Veil, it’s like you’re peering into the galaxy. ^_^

Order of the Garter

And now for something entirely different, we have Order of the Garter. OotG is an astonishing shade of royal blue that is filled with shimmering glass flecks. This one took me by surprise, but in a good way! It was a little streaky for me on the first coat but evened out nicely after 3 thin coats.
Here’s a picture of Order of the Garter with camera flash. I can’t WAIT to wear this sucker as a pedicure this summer while I’m dipping my toes is the beautiful (and frigid!) Lake Superior.
Macro shot for ya, click for maximum pretties.

Ascalon

Ascalon is another holo-chromatic polish similar to Princess Tears, but this one is a mixture of a deeper lavender and gunmetal grey. I. LOVE. THIS. ONE. The color transition is strong and I have a weakness for grey polishes that knows no bounds.

This is 2 coats of heaven. I had no idea that this one was multichromatic until I put it on. And then I just oooh’d and ahhhh’d at my nails for hours. *le sigh*

Even in low light the scattered holo effect in Ascalon is fairly prevalent.
You can get a really good look at the color transition in this macro, so click on this baby and be merry.

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Final Thoughts:

Well honestly I’ve never been disappointed with an A England polish and The Legend Collection isn’t going to break that trend. All 7 of these polishes are wonderful. Deep pigments, buttery smooth application, and unique colors are the keynotes and I’m once again astounded by Adina’s creative mind. If I had to pick favorites they’d definitely be Ascalon, Dragon, and St. George. But honestly any of these would make a great addition to your stash. So what are you waiting for? Bring The Legend home.

Purchase Info:

You can take any polish from The Legend Collection home by visiting the A-England official website at www.a-england.co.uk, they retail at £9.00 per 13ml bottle of polish and free international shipping is offered. A-England polishes can also be purchased for $12.00/ea through their US stockists, Overall Beauty or Llarowe (check each site for their individual shipping & handling stipulations). They’re also available from the newer e-tailer, Ninja Polish for $10.50/ea.

* The product(s) in this post were sent to me for unbiased review consideration.

Morning Everyone!

Today I’ve got one of my new Deborah Lippmann Spring 2012 pretties to show you all! I splurged on this one and one other Lippmann polish as a present to myself for my tax return, and Mermaid’s Dream was totally worth the price for me!

Less talk, more swatches! I used Sally Hansen Nail Quencher and Seche Vite top coat for today’s swatches.

Deborah Lippmann Resort Collection – Mermaid’s Dream

Here’s a few more bottle shots of Mermaid’s Dream for you all. I couldn’t get over how gorgeous this polish was even before I put it on my nails! I love the shape of Deborah Lippmann bottles, so I also wanted to show it off at a few different angles. Mermaid’s Dream is such a complex mixture of colors and textures that it almost drives me nutty trying to describe it! It starts off with a gorgeous seafoam green base with a metallic/pearl/frost-but-not-streaky finish. Then you add in blue and gold micro shimmer with larger blue glitter pieces floating about.

As my fellow Northern Michiganders would say… Holy wah! This polish is nuts, and I love it! Mermaid’s Dream was… well… a dream to apply! The formula was thin but it built up very nicely. It nearly painted itself onto my nails and the brush/polish was easy to control. I used 3 coats here and I didn’t have to do any post polish clean-up, which is always nice.

Here’s a macro shot of Mermaid’s Dream. You’re gonna want to view this at its maximum size, so g’head and click on this picture. Right. Meow. So much going on in one polish, and it’s all gooooood.

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Final Thoughts:

So basically I LOVE Mermaid’s Dream. I don’t have very many Deborah Lippmann polishes but I just KNEW that I needed this one as soon as I saw promo shots for it. It may be on the pricey end of the spectrum but Deborah Lippmann knows how to knock it out of the park with her glitter polishes! Also, I’ve been wearing it for 4 days now and so far no chipping or tip wear!

I will say this though: It is quite a hungry glitter. I ended up using 2 thicker coats of Seche Vite top coat and it’s still ever so slightly gritty to the touch. But the slight texture difference doesn’t bother me. I actually like the feel of it, it reminds of what I’d imagine “real” mermaid scales would feel and look like!

If you want it to be super smooth you might have to use a coat of Gelous along with your top coat.

Purchase Info:

The Deborah Lippmann Spring 2012 Resort Collection polishes can be purchased at high-end retailers nationwide and online, like Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus. You can also find them online at Deborah Lippmann’s E-Store, and Zappos.com. Retail cost for Mermaid’s Dream is $18.00 per .5 fl oz bottle of polish since it’s a glitter, her creme polishes will set you back $16.00 per bottle. Happy shopping!